A Sentimental Journey

Today I’m feeling a bit sappy and sentimental, please bear with me!

I do not know about you but I do not have a lot of my own childhood toys left. I guess that it is normal, since once we have ‘outgrown’ our toys they get passed on to younger ones to enjoy, except for the few we cannot bear to part with. I yet have to gather the courage to give away the first batch of my daughter’s outgrown toys, somehow it is really hard. It is a bit embarrassing that I seem more attached to them than she is. Coming back to my own toys, I wish my Mother would not have given away my Barbies (clothes, accessories and all) WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE (this is where I am still a bit bitter) when I was about 14. One day I came home from school and they were gone, given to a four year old – who certainly did not take care of my treasure as I had done. “You weren’t playing with them after all.” Well, I hadn’t but given the choice I would have liked to keep them!

Anyways, you might wonder how all of this relates to my usual blog posts which have a common theme: knitting. Let me tell you:

I have managed to hold on to something else, something I got when I was about 11 or 12 and which was one of the ‘it’-toys in the early 80’s in Germany. They are still around, I think, but then “Mon Chichi” were a novelty and a coveted plaything. Now, it is not the doll itself I’m so fond of, it is the clothes my mother – and later on myself – made for them. Hers are way more sophisticated than what I concocted, but I look them now and think back in fondness at the time spent producing something – without help, I might add – that actually could pass as a garment and was used in endless hours of pretend play. I think at sometime my Mon Chichi was the owner of what could pass as a haberdashery or maybe yarn store, with bolts of fabric, yarn and embroidery thread and all. My sister would come in and “place an order” and then I’d be busy making clothes, sewing, knitting and crocheting away.

Have a look:

My Mom’s work – complete with a sleeping sack and a doll for the ‘baby’.

Yes, indeed, there are beads on the little sweater!

An outfit complete with little booties and bib in crochet.

With horror I have discovered what seem to be moth holes in two of the outfits.

Now, remember, I was about 11 or 12 when I made the following:

The orange thing seems to be a bathing suit of a kind, then a top and a hat.

My work – no holes due to acrylic content…some of it needs blocking!  Mark the bag and hankerchief.

Yes, the white dress has lace sewn on.

This shows an attention to detail that even surprised me: a crocheted edge on the hanky which I found hidden in the skirt pocket and is about a 1.5 inch square

Thank you for going on this sentimental journey with me – I can’t wait for the time when my daughter is ready to play with these and maybe even make some new clothes herself.

– Mona